Shall He Be Kartik?
by karma0be11e
Summary: republished under a new pen name. G/K in contemporary times. 20s. bun in the oven. one-shot. please R


A/N: this was previously under my former pen name (smexxy0kartik). i gave myself permission to repost. Characters aren't mine. Kartik, however, does own me.

"What do you think of the name Emile?" I asked my husband who was standing over the stove, making sure the rice was behaving. It was the only thing that I could tolerate since I got pregnant. I was due in a month and we still hadn't picked out a name for the baby.

Our house was modest. There were three bedrooms and two bathrooms and a wrap-around porch on the outside, which overlooks the Pamlico Sound. Kartik and I moved here about to years ago from Glen Cove, New York and have been in love with this area since.

"Honestly, Gem? Do you want our son to sound like a snobbish prick?" Kartik deemed the rice ready and dumped out the water. He then put some in a bowl hand placed it in front of me on the table.

"For your information," I retorted, shooting a death glare toward him in the process. "Emile means 'rival' not 'snobbish prick.'" I put three pieces of butter onto my rice and stirred, watching as the two coalesced. Kartik stared at me incredulously. I ignored him.

"When are your parents supposed to get here?" I asked, shoving a fork-full of rice in my mouth. Kartik very visibly tensed. Kartik's parents, who still live in India, were flying here to witness the birth of their first grandchild. I've only met his parents once: our wedding day. Though they are both firm believers in single-race relationships, his mother seems to adore me. Kartik never really had a positive relationship with his father, who, very clearly, played favorites. To this day Kartik can do no right and his older brother, Amar, can do no wrong.

"Their flight gets in tomorrow night. I offered to pick them up but my father insisted on getting a cab because my driving would cause him 'to have to be taken to the hospital.'" I walked over to him and placed his head between my hands, tucking his hair behind his ear. "It's going to be okay, I promise you." My green eyed bored into his. He knew I meant it. "Besides," I said, kissing him on the lips, "it's not every day you've accomplished something before your brother." He let out a small smile as I kissed him again.

"Hey, that reminds me," he said. "What do you think about Thomas?" It was an innocent question—and it really was quite thoughtful—but I still fumed.

"No! My son is _not_ being named after anyone of our family members, especially my brother!" Just then tears started falling; Damn pregnant hormones. Kartik put his thumbs on my cheeks, swiping at my tears.

"I'm sorry, that was dumb of me. I don't know why I said that." His voice was soothing, apologetic. "Here, let's go look through the book some more." We moved to the living room and sat on the couch. Tears ceasing, I put my head on his shoulder and he put his free hand on my leg. "Why don't you want our son to be named after one of our relatives?" Kartik turned to the section on boy names and started flipping pages.

"I just don't like it, and I really don't like multiples."

"Multiples?" The flipping stopped.

"Yeah. You know James the Second, Third, and so on. Or parents and children that have the same first name and different middle names, like Kevin Michael and Kevin Alexander." Kartik nodded in response. He was about to start flipping pages again when I said "But I do want our son's middle name to be Kartik."

"I thought you said you didn't want that." Both his face and his voice displayed confusion.

"Well, you're the exception…as always." I kissed his cheek as he shook his head in amusement and brought his attention back to the book. "So," he said a few minutes later, "do you like Connor?"

"Ew, no."

"Is there something wrong with Connor?"

"There's nothing _wrong_ with it, but I don't like it when there's more than one of the same sound in a name."

"So that means no C's and no K's?"

"Exactly."

One hour and many vetoed names later, I was beginning to lose hope that our son would have a first name by the time he was born. We were at the end of the R's when we both pointed to the same name.

"Ryan?" Kartik asked.

"Ryan," I confirmed, nodding for emphasis.

He closed the book and we both stood up, stretching. He brought his lips down to mine then and I swung my arms around his neck, bringing him closer. I pulled away too soon for his liking, a devilish smile on my face.

"What's that for?"

"Something I've been wanting to do for the past few months."

"And what would that be?" In response, my hands slowly travelled from his neck to his torso, where I could feel all of the muscles in his abdomen, to the place where only I could cause his reaction. He groaned.

Smile still on my face, I turned from him to climb the stairs. Once I reached the top I called to him, "You probably won't be interested, but I was thinking of taking a shower right now—"

Barely a second later I heard him running up the steps.

A/N: Hope you liked it. please review—just no mean comments. constructive criticism is always preferred

~karma0be11e, formerly smexxy0kartik


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